My invention is directed to a novel cleaning assembly, and more particularly to a novel cleaning assembly for use within a dryer feed chute.
Many chemical materials or substances are manufactured or produced in a wet, semi-wet or otherwise "sticky" state, and at some time after being manufactured, are fed into a dryer for partial or total removal of water therefrom. Such wet or semi-wet materials are usually fed into the dryer via a feed chute. Often, when feeding such moist material into the dryer, a material buildup has a tendency to accumulate on the inner periphery of the dryer feed chute to the point where free passage of the material into the dryer becomes partially or totally blocked. Such a tendency requires positive action to keep the dryer feed chute clear to maintain a forward flow of material into the dryer.
The current practice is to employ manual labor to prevent such a material buildup. Current reliance upon manual labor to maintain a forward flow of material through the feed chute involves high costs. Moreover, in spite of the precautions taken to manually maintain flow, the dryer feed chute occasionally plugs to the point where shutdown of the dryer and clean out of the feed chute is required. Many times, such shut downs and costs associated therewith become expensive.
From an economic standpoint, it is desirable to have an apparatus which automatically cleans out the dryer feed chute thereby reducing or eliminating associated costs of manual labor. It is also desirable that the cost of operating such an apparatus be significantly lower than the associated manual labor costs.
Moreover, it is desirable that such an apparatus be rugged and durable and that such an apparatus be capable of operating over a long period of time while requiring little or no maintenance. It is additionally desirable that such an apparatus be able to be quickly disassembled, to be manufactured from readily available parts, and to be simple enough in concept to be modifiable and thus suitable in a variety of similar applications.